Musical pipe

ABSTRACT

A wind instrument in the form of a musical pipe with means for closing and opening the end to permit operation throughout the full chromatic scale in both the upper and the lower octaves of its compass. A musical pipe with a substantially constant diameter bore and a manually operable end cap.

United States Patent Inventor John C. Guinness Los Angeles, Calif. Appl. No. 807,036 Filed Mar. 13, 1969 Patented Mar. 16, 1971 Assignee Midas Production, Inc.

Los Angeles, Calif.

MUSICAL PIPE 5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 84/380, 84/386 Int. Cl G10d 7/02, GlOd 9/00 Field of Search 84/3 75,

Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-John F. Gonzales Attorney-Harris, Kiech, Russell & Kern ABSTRACT: A wind instrument in the form of a musical pipe with means for closing and opening the end to permit operation throughout the full chromatic scale in both the upper and the lower octaves of its compass. A musical pipe with a substantially constant diameter bore and a manually operable end cap.

Patented mich 1s, 1971 /N l EA/ TOR JOHN C. GUINNESS BY HA5 A 77'0RA/E75 Maze/5; A7501, RUSSELL 6: KEEN MUSICAL PIPE This invention relates to wind instruments of the type generally known as musical pipes. Such an instrument in general incorporates a pipe with finger openings and a mouthpiece. instruments falling into this category include the recorder and the whistle.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an instrument of this type which is inexpensive, produces good quality sound, and has a compass of two octaves. A variety of whistles have been built and used, but these are generally narrow bore instruments having six finger holes and producing the thin quality of sound associated with such a bore. The recorder is a taper bore instrument having eight finger holes and a compass of two octaves, but its bore makes the lowest notes and some of the higher notes difficult to obtain, and the fingering in its lower octave is nonsequential.

it has been found that a straight or constant diameter bore pipe having a bore substantially wider in proportion to its length than that of whistles and recorders, can be made operative over a chromatic compass of two octaves by providing for the closing of the end, with the instrument operating in the lower octave with the end open and operating for certain notes in the upper octave with the end closed. With this construction, true intonation is obtained over the full chromatic compass of two'octaves, and isolated notes above this compass are obtainable. Such a pipe provides a good quality of sound throughout its range. Further, the instrument can be made of simple molded plastic parts with the pipe a conventional length of plastic tubing.

It is a particular object of the invention to provide such an instrument with an end closure mechanism and a substantially constant diameter bore. Other objects, features and advantages will more fully appear in the course of the following description. The drawing merely shows and the description merely describes a preferred embodiment of the present invention which is given by way of illustration or example. in the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a side view, partly in section, of a wind instrument incorporating a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged end view taken along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1; I

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view. taken along the 3-3 of P16. 1; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 1.

The instrument of FIG. 1 includes a pipe 10, a mouthpiece 11 carried at one end of the pipe 10, and a closure mechanism 12 carried at the other end of the pipe.

The pipe It) typically is a length of plastic tubing of constant diameter and constant wall thickness, with a plurality of finger openings 3,224,315.

The mouthpiece 11 may be conventional in design and may incorporate the muting construction as shown in Guiness US. Pat. No. 3,224,315. The mouthpiece may include an inlet passage 1.5 and a window 16 opening into the interior of the pipe 10.

Various mechanisms may be utilized for closing the other end of the pipe and a preferred structure is illustrated in the drawing. A collar 20 is fitted on the end of the pipe 10. A cap 21 is carried on a bellcrank 22 pivotally mounted on a pin 23 in arms 24 of the collar 20. A spring 25 is positioned around the pin 23 with ends of the spring engaging the bellcrank 22 and collar 20, for urging the cap 21 away from the collar 20.

The cap 21 is actuated by a lever 30 carried on the side of the pipe. The lever 30 includes a shaft 31 with one end jourthe pipe. lt has been found that such a diameter to Ian th ratio in a straight or constant diameter instrument, provi es a superior quality of sound.

The instrument is used in the position as shown in FIG. 1 for playing in the lower octave. The end of the pipe is closed for playing certain notes in the upper octave, by manually pressing downward on 'the extension 35 of the lever 30. This produces motion of the lever 30 and cap 21 as indicated by arrows on the FIGS, to bring the seal ring 40 of the cap 21 into engagement with the collar 20, against the urging of the spring 25.

The construction and operation as described above provides a wind instrument having a chromatic compass of two octaves, with the jmproved quality of sound associated with a wide bore. True intonation is obtained over the full chromatic compass of two octaves, and isolated notes above this compass are obtainable. The instrument may also be operated with the end partially closed to obtain the semitone below the normal lowest note of itsxrange. The instrument may have sequential fingering for producing the notes of the basic diatonic scale in its lower octave.

Although an exemplary embodiment of the invention has been disclosed and discussed, it will be understood that other applications of the invention are possible and that the embodiment disclosed may be subjected to various changes, modifications and substitutions without necessarily departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. A wind instrument comprising in combination:

a pipe having a constant diameter bore, with a plurality of openings in the wall thereof; a mouthpiece carried at one end of said pipe forming an air passage to the interior of said pipe; and

closure means carried at the other end of said pipefor selectively opening and closing said other end.

2. An instrument as defined in claim 1 including control means carried on said pipe adjacent one of said openings for manually operating said closure means.

3. An instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein said closure means includes:

a cover for said other end;

means for pivotally mounting said cover adjacent said other end for movement between pipe closed and open conditions;

spring means urging said cover to one of said conditions;

and

lever means mounted on said pipe for moving said cover to the other of said conditions.

4. An instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein said pipe has I a constant diameter bore of between approximately one/fif- 21 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3, 5 7O,358 Dated March 16, 1971 Inventor(s) John C. Guinness It: is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Aasignee's name "Midas Production, Inc. should read "Midas Productions, Inc.--.

Column 1: Line 52, "3,224,315" should read --13--.

Signed and sealed this 29th day of June 1971 (SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETOHER,JR. WILLIAM E. SGHUYL Commissioner of P Attesting Officer 

1. A wind instrument comprising in combination: a pipe having a constant diameter bore, with a plurality of openings in the wall thereof; a mouthpiece carried at one end of said pipe forming an air passage to the interior of said pipe; and closure means carried at the other end of said pipe for selectively opening and closing said other end.
 2. An instrument as defined in claim 1 including control means carried on said pipe adjacent one of said openings for manually operating said closure means.
 3. An instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein said closure means includes: a cover for said other end; means for pivotally mounting said cover adjacent said other end for movement between pipe closed and open conditions; spring means urging said cover to one of said conditions; and lever means mounted on said pipe for moving said cover to the other of said conditions.
 4. An instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein said pipe has a constant diameter bore of between approximately one/fifteenth and one/twentieth part of its length.
 5. An instrument as defined in claim 1 providing true intonation of the notes of the full chromatic scale in the first lower octave with said other end open, and true intonation of the notes of the full chromatic scale in the second higher octave, with said other end closed in order to produce certain of the notes in the higher octave. 